Insights from our Editorial Team

Are DERs increasing the cost of distribution grids? Are these resources delivering grid value without corresponding payments? Are they being cross-subsidized by other ratepayers? Will DERs be allowed to compete side-by-side with large-scale generators and traditional distribution grid equipment?

From New York to California to Hawaii, we're inviting new generation, distribution and energy management technologies into grid systems and encouraging formerly monopolistic and slow-moving utilities to reinvent themselves as smart, nimble player-coaches in a newly dynamic and pluralistic energy marketplace.

It sounds like the start of an old joke: These economists walk into a ballroom ... and you can make your own punchline that involves a minor disaster and major modeling (of the numbers variety). But the IEEE Power & Energy Society’s (PES) grid economics super session this week was serious business.

During this week of IEEE's PES General Meeting, we take a look at one of the association's more social projects, the Smart Village, which connects local needs with local resources when it comes to powering up communities.

In this second part of our interview with Mark Konya, supervisor of customer experience analytics at Ameren Missouri, we chat about how the utility uses analytics in social media and marketing, and Konya gives three great bits of advice to others tackling the scary world of analytics.

While there are many delivery models used by the construction industry, achieving cost and scheduling goals is completely within reach for the industry through the Engineering-Procure-Construction (EPC) approach to new developments.

According to a recent study by Duke University, utility customers who use automatic bill pay services consume significantly more energy than those who manually pay their monthly bill after reviewing a statement.

The convergence of information technology (IT) and operations technology (OT) -- one of the biggest trends in the industry today -- has one positive, if unexpected, side effect, according to Brett Luedde, director of critical infrastructure security for ViaSat -- namely that it gives utilities a leg up on security.

It’s no secret that today’s utility customer is evolving and beginning to demand more from their provider. While utilities are constantly attempting to provide new services to meet these demands, they can often forget about the tools that help them get even more from their efforts.

We’re all blinkered. The best service we can do for each other is try to help with those blind spots to guide us all through. So, here’s a set of new “eyes” for utilities to help them a bit with their blinkers and blinders and vulnerable spots when it comes to customer service.

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